LONDON: The London listed food delivery service Just Eat has agreed a deal in principle to merge with Dutch rival Takeaway.com in a £8.2 billion deal to form one of the world’s largest food delivery giants.
Just Eat and Takeaway.com together managed €7.3 billion worth of orders last year.
They operate across Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico.
Just Eat shares went up almost 25% on Monday with the news of the merger.
“The board of Just Eat and the management board of Takeaway.com believe that the possible combination is a highly compelling opportunity to create a combined business that will benefit from creating one of the world’s largest online food delivery platforms,” the two firms said in a statement.
According to Edison Research, “In 2018, Just Eat had 26.3m customers versus Takeaway.com’s 14.1m, Just Eat had 221m orders versus Takeaway.com’s 94m; Just Eat’s revenue was £780m versus Takeaway.com’s €232m; and Just Eat’s underlying ebitda was c £180m versus an adjusted ebitda loss of c €11m for Takeaway.com.”
The all-share terms of the deal would see Just Eat investors receive 0.09744 Takeaway shares for each share, implying a value of 731 pence per Just Eat share.
The new joint company will be chaired by Mike Evans of Just Eat while Takeway.com chief executive Jitse Groen would act as the CEO.
The global online food delivery market stands at just over $86 billion and it is expected to reach more than $160 billion within five years.
